Discovering Rome
by Ramzes
Summary: A Greek discovers Rome almost by mistake... just when the Roman demigods are fighting the battle of their lives. The battle of Mount Tam.


_Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Thank you, Rick Riordan, for this wonderful world you gave us._

**Discovering Rome**

"Ready?" Jason Grace yelled.

In the faint light of the rising sun, Daniel Whitesmith's face was determined. "We are," he said. "Just a moment, I have to make sure that there isn't anyone in there…"

Jason hesitated, then looked around. There was a battle raging around them. Just as he watched, a Titan in a gold armour held out a hand – and Lynette Waters flew aside like a doll and fell on the rocks with a sickening sound indicating that she had broken her skull.

"We don't _have_ a moment!" Jason roared. "Do it now!"

Daniel looked at Guy Beauchamps and a silent understanding passed between them. That was an order from their superior and neither hesitated. Daniel saluted Jason and activated the detonator, Guy threw a bottle of wine over it and jumped aside just a moment before flames and smoke exploded in a spectacular display of red and black.

"Come on!" Jason yelled, "we've got to help the others."

The things were not looking good. The lake behind them raged and swelled, and burned with poisonous flames. The smoke was so dense it reached the sky. Even Jason couldn't fly over it without being suffocated by the vapours. He had made it through the lake only because he was with the son of Vulcan and the son of Bacchus – two gods who wielded power over fire. But they had not calculated the odds correctly. They needed to go back and help their friends who were being tossed this way and that in their boats or falling into the water and dying in agony.

The three of them were already on their way, followed by Gwen and Bobby, when Guy stopped dead. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Jason and Daniel asked at the same time and while they were asking, they did hear: a moan. A scream.

"It could be a monster…" Jason said slowly.

"No, it isn't." Daniel shook his head. "It's a human."

"Probably one of… them," Jason spat and the others knew what he meant by that. They were those never talked about, the cursed, the shame of the Roman camp. The traitors. The demigods who had reneged on the cause, on Olympus and the world. The ones who had joined Saturn.

Still, Jason knew that even if he was right, he was in the wrong. Yes, they had needed to seal the cave in the approach of Mount Tamalpais and thus block the way for the Titan Army to gain supplies and manpower – well, monsterpower – through the tunnel that crossed almost the entire silhouette of the mountain. But they should have checked to make sure that there were no people in there – some unfortunate mortal tourists and likes. And Jason had neglected this. Sure, their friends needed their help as soon as possible, but they couldn't just turn their backs and leave someone who might be completely innocent to the fate that _their_ detonator had predetermined.

"We have to stop the fire," he decreed grimly.

_Easier said than done_. Even Guy and Daniel would find it hard to control the fire now; it had grown and it was rapidly becoming uncontrollable.

"Gwen," Bobby suddenly said. "Can you grow something?"

The others stared at him as if he had grown three extra heads.

"Some plant that sucks out oxygen?" he tried again.

This time, they understood. Gwen thought for a moment and then produced some plants near the entrance of the cave. They were extremely big and they did suck out oxygen – at least enough for Guy and Daniel to be able to establish control over the fire and put it down.

Jason raised his javelin and pointed it at the entrance. The sky was thorn by the lash of lightening and when it was clear enough for them to see, the detonator had been swallowed by the earth.

The demigods looked at each other in a long moment of a painful indecisiveness. Had their displays of power hurt whoever was inside? They could have died from the flames… from the vapours… from the landside they could hear taking place inside – so hard had the lightning hit.

Finally, Jason made a step towards the cave. "I'll go," he said but before he could do something, a river of confused-looking people started pouring from within. Thank Jupiter, none of them looked hurt.

"What are you doing here, kids?" an old man asked, his authoritative voice somewhat compromised by his thorn and stained clouds. "Can't you see that this storm will be the death of you?"

_Storm_? The demigods looked at each other. Was that what the mortals were seeing? Well, it made sense – the Mist would hardly let them see the battle between heroes, Titans and various mortals, let alone the battle between the gods and Typhon.

"Wow!" A little kid, no more than four or five, stared at Jason't javeline open-mouthed, then turned to his mother. "What a nice toy! Mummy, I want one."

Jason wondered what his weapon looked like to these mortals but he had no time to lose here. It was obvious that they were okay, so he and his friends needed to leave as soon as possible and fight their battle.

"What are you doing here?" Gwen asked.

"When the rain and downpour started, we hid in here to wait for them to end," the old man explained and looked dubiously at the sky. "But it is not nearly over, is it?"

Jason wanted to laugh. It was nearly over, only not the way these people pictured it to be. The world was nearly over unless they did something, and soon at that. He looked at the lake. The situation there hadn't changed, only there were now fewer people in the boats and more screaming and dying in the water.

"Crazy kids," a woman muttered, "to hold a rowing contest now, of all times."

Bobby actually laughed at this, in the pained way of someone who actually wanted to cry. They saw this… this carnage as a bloody _contest_? If only!

"Look," Guy reminded sharply," we really have to go."

"Yes," Jason agreed and turned to the mortals. "You'd better stay here. No, you'd better go back from where you've come. I…"

"And where did you come from? Where are we?" a boy suddenly asked. He was short and haggard, and so bruised that he must have it hard at home. He squinted at Jason almost as if… as if he could see him as he really was. As if he was trying to remember if he had ever seen him. But that made no sense!

"Don't you _know_ where we are?" Daniel asked suspiciously. Maybe the boy really was a monster?

"We are at California. At Mount Tam," Gwen quickly interrupted – she had decided it would be easier to answer and leave than losing time with this guy.

"Look,' Jason said, "we have to go. Everyone else, go back."

"You're crazy!" someone exclaimed. "You'll die in this storm and flood."

But the small group of demigods left without looking back. Muttering about overbold children, the tourists started going from where they had come.

All but the short boy. After a brief hesitation, he followed the heroes, hiding behind trees in the rare occasion when they looked back.

* * *

**A. N. What do you think this far? I think it isn't too wise of me to start yet another story I'll have to keep alive but I couldn't restrain myself. So, that's one of my Heroes of Olympus stories. Actually, there are quite a few of them: Given a Destiny, Warriors for Rome, Brave at Heart, and Millennia of Hatred. And yes, the last one still has to be completed. I plead guilty. **

**A. N. 2: I know that according to tradition, Dyonisus was the Greek god of wine. But after the reforms of Delphi, he was somewhat mingled with Apollo and took some of his functions. Apollo was related to the sun and Dyonisus was related to the fire - the night equivalent of the sun. That's a reminder of an older Thracian tradition that entered Greece at that time... but that's a long story. Still, I will quote what the Roman historian Svetonius said about a famous visit in the shrine of Dionysus that was no less important and glorious that the shrine of Apollo in Delphi, "**_When Octavius, upon marching with his army through the deserts of Thrace, consulted the oracle in the grove of father Bacchus, with barbarous rites, concerning his son, he received from the priests an answer to the same purpose (that his son would become the master of the entire world); because, when they poured wine upon the altar, there burst out so prodigious a flame, that it ascended above the roof of the temple, and reached up to the heavens; a circumstance which had never happened to any one but Alexander the Great, upon his sacrificing at the same altars." _The Octavius he was talking about was the father of the first Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus. And that means that the two most important predictions of all times - that Alexander the Great would conquer Asia and that Octavian Augustus would found the Roman Empire - were made pouring **wine over fire** in **Dionysus**' shrine! I'd say it's pretty impressive, don't you think?


End file.
